China News Service, January 17 (Reporter Meng Xiangjun) Recently, the "big news" in the American political arena has continued to ferment. The current President Biden has stored many classified documents in his private home and former office, and the news has been disclosed one after another.
After the 2022 mid-term elections in the United States, the Republican Party, which has won control of the House of Representatives, can't wait to launch a series of investigations on Biden. Of course, this opportunity will not be missed. A US media described it as a "chaotic and explosive political showdown". it has started.
From former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to former President Trump, and now President Biden, the history of getting into trouble due to confidential documents seems to be reincarnated in the United States over and over again, and the struggle between the two parties is becoming more and more fierce...
Data map: US President Biden.
Confidential documents "misplaced"? Republicans bite the White House
Let’s first look at the current President of the United States, Biden. Recently, he has discovered many batches of confidential documents that “should not be there”:
First Batch of Secret Documents
Discovered: November 2, 2022, 6 days before the US midterm elections
Spotted: The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania, just 1 mile from the White House
Quantity: about 10 servings
Content: U.S. intelligence memos and briefing materials, involving Ukraine, Iran, the United Kingdom, etc.
The second, third, and fourth batches of confidential documents
Discovery time: December 20, 2022 - January 11, 12, 2023
Location of discovery: Biden's private home in Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Quantity: At least 1 + 5 copies, some US media also reported an unknown number of confidential documents
Contents: Classified documents from the Obama administration
As batches of confidential documents were discovered, Biden's attitude had to change from "surprised" and "I don't know why" to admitting that there were indeed secret documents in his former office and private house.
But he still explained that the garage of his private house where he stored his documents was "locked".
But the Associated Press stated that the key to the incident was that when the White House came forward to admit the matter, it had been more than two months since the first batch of confidential documents were discovered.
The White House "informed but not reported"?
This is exactly one of the key points of the Democratic Party's opponent, the Republican Party.
The White House legal adviser admitted that more classified documents were found in Biden's private home.
Image source: Screenshot of CNBC report
At least, the Republican Party knows that in this matter, the United States has two laws that can "hold" the president:
One is the Presidential Records Act.
According to this law, the records of the President and Vice President of the United States must be transferred to the National Archives after the end of the term of the current government to protect the confidential nature of the documents.
The second is the Anti-Espionage Law.
Anyone who deliberately retains national security secrets without authorization and fails to submit them to officials authorized to keep the secrets will constitute a crime under the law, and the president of the United States is no exception.
File:U.S. House of Representatives.
Therefore, after the Republicans elected Speaker of the House of Representatives McCarthy and the House of Representatives began to operate, the Republican Party sent a letter to the US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes non-stop, saying that Biden might break the law and demanded a comprehensive review.
On the day that Biden's fourth batch of "private possession" secret documents was exposed, the U.S. Department of Justice appointed a special prosecutor, former Maryland District Attorney Robert Hull, to investigate the matter.
You know, Hull was appointed by former Republican President Trump in 2017. Under such circumstances, can Biden pass the test easily?
Seeing that the fire could not be wrapped in paper, he simply admitted it honestly.
Recently, White House legal counsel Sauber said that Biden and his team believe that the investigation will show that these classified documents were "inadvertently misplaced" and that they will work closely with the special prosecutor.
Two presidents were under investigation at the same time, who can escape unscathed?
Former U.S. President Trump raised his hands in favor of the investigation of Biden.
Recently, he pointed out on social media that the documents in Biden's former office and private residence "certainly have not been declassified", and asked: "When will the FBI search Biden's many residences, even the White House?"
Data map: Former US President Trump.
The US media believes that Trump is mocking the fact that his own private residence, Mar-a-Lago, was raided by the FBI in August 2022 and more than 300 classified documents were taken away.
In the eyes of Republicans in the United States, Trump's "treatment" is not as good as that of Biden. He was launched a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice. The charges include not only violating the "Anti-Espionage Act", but also obstructing judicial justice and illegally handling government records.
Republicans believe that it is also at the "presidential level". One is a criminal investigation, which may result in imprisonment;
The "Washington Post" and other US media also compared the attitudes of the two presidents. Trump "refuses to cooperate and obstructs the transfer of documents", while Biden immediately transferred the confidential documents to the National Archives of the United States. There are also differences in the number and content of encrypted files.
On August 26, 2022 local time, the U.S. Department of Justice released the written testimony of the FBI’s application to search Mar-a-Lago, with multiple pages blacked out.
Regardless of whether the Republican Party is making use of the issue, with the opening of the investigation of Biden's "document door", American politics has made history again-two presidents were investigated by special prosecutors at the same time, and they were all caused by the confidential documents issue!
Snowden, a former defense contractor who was wanted for disclosing the US large-scale surveillance program "Prism Gate", commented that in order to gain partisan advantage, the US Department of Justice, which discovered the Biden secret before the mid-term elections, chose to suppress the matter; The president and a group of high-ranking officials will not go to jail for taking away multiple secret documents, which is completely different from the fate of the former defense contractor who was fined for leaking five documents. This is the "real scandal" in his eyes.
Now, the problem falls to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Both the former president and the president are being investigated, and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are fighting fiercely. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, it is really a big test for the Ministry of Justice to choose how to "handle the case" and make a conclusion.
How messy is American politics when secret documents become a tool for exposing short stories?
In fact, if you want to talk about American politicians who are "planted" on the issue of handling political secrets, you have to mention Hillary Clinton.
In 2016, when Hillary was competing for the presidential election on behalf of the Democratic Party, "WikiLeaks" suddenly dealt her a fatal blow, exposing that she used her private mailbox to handle official business, involving nearly 600 items of confidential information, and 91 cases of email transmission in violation of security regulations .
Data map: On November 9, 2016 local time, in New York, USA, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by her husband and former President Clinton, delivered a defeat speech.
The "email gate" hurt Hillary's vitality greatly. She originally had 3 million more votes than her opponent, but she was finally defeated in the presidential election and became the first female president in American history.
And it was Trump who won Hillary.
The "war of the century" between Trump and Hillary was rated by the US media as the "ugliest and most divisive" presidential election in the United States in decades.
However, I never thought that in 2021, Trump supporters will storm Capitol Hill and write another "surprise" in the history of American elections in a more violent way.
According to Trump, he has encountered a "witch hunt" by the Democratic Party since the day he ran for the presidency. Controversy over the operation of charity funds and foundations.
Data map: On October 9, 2016 local time, at the University of Washington, Trump and Hillary participated in the presidential election debate.
In short, from former presidential candidates, former presidents to the current president, the handling and storage of confidential information has repeatedly become a tool for political opponents to launch attacks. This vicious circle of deja vu reveals that the American political circle is facing two serious problems:
First, security issues. The political elites in Washington handle confidential documents so casually that they don’t even need “hackers” or “spying.” Internal loopholes are enough to make them lose trust and voters.
Second, the issue of partisanship. Although the analysis shows that neither Trump nor Biden will be easily convicted, the two parties in the United States are getting deeper and deeper into the horns of partisanship polarization. For this already divided country, it is tantamount to worsening the situation. .
In the atmosphere of tit-for-tat confrontation between the two parties, American voters have to confirm one thing, that is, who will they vote for in 2024?
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